Report on maple syrup industry urges Quebec to drop quota system

[CBOYER]

Agriculture Minister Pierre Paradis present a report on Quebec's maple syrup industry ...

http://www.coastreporter.net/report-on-maple-syrup-industry-urges-quebec-to-drop-quota-system-1.2171173

[Clinkis]

Interesting........I wondered what the federations response will be. We all outside Quebec benefit from the the stability created by the federations quota system. If it's gone, with Quebec's production capacity, I wonder if they will flood the market and drive prices lower.

[spud]

If that happens we would get .50 Lb at best here in Vermont.

Spud

[BreezyHill]

with the price of oil the way it is would we even get 50 cents?

[CBOYER]

a translate part of the report:


It can be argued that this system has helped build a price; we must recognize this fact. But in the same breath, it is ironic that basically the ultimate goal of collective marketing system is to provide an optimal income to our producers? In fact, the producers of New Brunswick, Ontario and neighboring US states gets a revenue per pound higher than that received by their Quebec counterparts. This paradox remains at least disappointing, although we can try to rationalize it.

The biggest argument is the Reserve that is paid only by the Quebec producers. It cost them 12¢ per pound, but this reserve makes the price stability on the complete market

[Teuchtar]

I would gladly pay 12c/ lb to a system that would stabilize the market, even tho' I'm just a small producer in the local retail market who doesn't depend on this for the family income. The federation very kindly subsidizes my price and doesn't interfere with my production. But maple does make a difference for many family farms on both sides of the border. If the federation quota system goes away and prices drop, it will be those middle sized producers in the bulk market who get hurt.
If the federation opened up membership to any/all producers in north america, how many of us would sign up ? If the policies remain heavy-handed as we've seen, few would want to join, but if there's a menu of options to chose from, perhaps there's merit in such a system.